Educator

Branching

• Branching allows program to process different code blocks depending on testable situations
• Variables have a “scope” that is limited to the code block
• The ‘if” statement processes a code block if its expression is true
• The “else” clause processes a code block if the expression for its corresponding “if” statement is false
• The ‘if” statement and/or its “else” clause may have more “if” statements nested in its code block
• A special case of “else” nesting is the “chained if”, where a number of cases may be tested until one evaluates to true
• A “switch” statement works like a “chained if” for an integer expression– the case that matches the integer value is processed
• A “conditional” statement uses the “ternary operator” to provide a value conditional on its expression – the first value if true, or the second value if false
• A “goto” statement unconditionally branches to another location in the code, but is known to lead to poor quality software
• Here is a link that includes a discussion of various kinds of branching statements: http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/control/